1403 Tasting Notes
Yesterday again I trundled down to Chinatown for my milk tea and dim sum after acupuncture.
This place is always an experience. I’m getting to know the regulars by sight.
Clusters of male pensioners huddling over the paper. I wonder if they are selecting their horses for the races. Is horse-racing even on now these days?An elderly man with a tray of tarts and buns and siu mai and tea in one hand, supporting himself on his cane with his other. He secures his table and trundles off to get some chili sauce for dipping.
Another man, middle-agesd, in scuffed clothes with dirty torn fingernails rants aloud in Cantonese to no one, perhaps to everyone.
A university-agedcouple settle at the table next to him during one of his pauses. They move next to me when he begins again.
We compare our dishes. My wonton noodle soup is not very good. ( I should know better than to get wonton noodle soup at a bakery.) Their cream cheese filled buns are tasty. The har gow is delicious. My tea is excellent.
We discuss food, the evolving city, popular culture, racism, mainland China, and how the Cantonese speaking Chinese built our Chinatowns and established a Chinese presence in Canada.
We part: they to their workshop and me to purchase a day book for the new year.
Thanks for bringing us along!
You are welcome. Thank you for being interested in my milk tea excursions. <3
Your milk tea excursions are a joy :)
Thank you, CrowKettle. They really are a joyful part of my week, especially in these times. <3
<3
I also enjoy reading about your milk tea excursions and am craving har gow now. :)
I too enjoy reading these weekly adventures, please continue to share :)
I had TWO rather robust Hong Kong-style milk teas today after acupuncture. It is Friday, after all.
By the time I got home, I was all caffeined out, but I still wanted a cup or two of black tea.
In my last H & S order, I included a sample packet of this to try and because it is decaffeinated, I haven’t touched it.
Recently, a Steepster had written a negative review of this one.
Since I was in no mood for experimentation today, I just added a glug of eggnog. While the combination is rather lovely, I’m not getting an accurate impression of the tea itself. That’ll have to wait for another day.
It does best for me with a light touch on time and temp.
Thanks. That’s usually my standard approach to black teas.
Normally I stew mine. Anything less requires full attention, which I rarely have to donate ;)
Hahaha, a friend does that. His tea is lukewarm before he takes the teabag out.
I use a Libre and I can see the water turn whatever colour as I begin to pour it out. Generous leafing, under boiling, and quick steeps.
So, I went shopping in my stash for a chai and came across an unopened packet of this one. The sensible thing to do would be to keep all my chais cloistered together, but I may not have the organizational wherewithal to get this job done .
My neighbours—Bless their hearts—woke me up at four and kept me awake till past seven at which point the condo construction began.
I am knackered, clearly, and need something reliably punchy. Even then, I may not be all that functional, but let’s see.
The past few days, I’ve been drinking lovely delicate French teas and what a delight that has been.
This moment calls for something else entirely, either a fiesty breakfast blend or chai, which is often a breakfast blend plus a whole whack of spice. And that is exactly what this is.
I tend to be a big fan of Anne’s chai blends, so this one has sat neglected for a long while. The spice blend is different but good.
The anise competes with the cardamom. I prefer anise far more in the background, so instead of milk and sweetener, I added a big glug of eggnog. Exactly what is needed here.
The vanilla and creaminess of the eggnog soothe and sweeten the spice and strong base.
It may not be enough to put me in motion, but it is certainly doing much to put me out of my misery.
And I do miss Zen Tea Life.
Did you wake up on the British side of the bed this morning? Just giggling at all of the British slang he he.
Hahaha, i lived in London for a couple of years some time ago. Occasionally, bits of that slip out. Also, I’ve been watching a bit of British telly lately, so that refreshes things too. And, well, TEA!
Also, I see only one British-ism in my post plus telly.
Ha ha, I was thinking of “knackered” and “whack of”. Love it!
Knackered, yes, but I’ve never considered a whack of something to be particularly British. That said, we, Canadians, use a lot more British-isms than Americans do. Ha! Who knows?
Maybe it’s not? It’s just not something I ever hear in the States, but I’ve heard it on British shows I think.
This is growing on me. I’ve been sipping it throughout the day. First, plain. Next, with milk. And now, with whole milk and honey.
The fine hazelnut paste comes through nicely with a hint of chocolate far behind. Keemun is the driving force.
I find this tea thinner than Mon Petit Chocolat., but that may just be me. Looking forward to hearing what others make of it.
I may have destroyed this cup through user error. Gah!
My cup of Mon Petit Chocolat was so lovely that I wanted to follow it up with another chocolate tea to see how they would compare.
Nevermind.
Here is my desert island caramel black tea. Drippy runny caramel. Sweet, but not over the top, with a teeny tiny bit of smoke on a fiesty black base.
This sounds like a good reason for me to start putting together a DM order…
I won’t talk you out of it.
But you might want to hold off until the DF advent results all pour in.
There’s almost unanimous consensus on this one too :P
The caramel is similar to the Oolong au Beurre Sale.
I have that tea and the caramel is excellent!
Agree.
Ooooooo…
Ohhhh, how I love this one! The caramel is on point!
Hmm, tastes more or less like ginger ale, which I don’t usually drink, with the addition of mate bitterness and non-caloric sweetener, aspartame maybe? Nope, not aspartame. The ingredients show sugarcane reb.m. Not sure what that is if it is not sugar. I’ll look it up and get back.
I would not buy this as I am not typically an energy drink consumer. I do like Yerba mate though and enjoy the bit of wake up buzz that comes from it.
It came in my online Quebec Tea Festival tea box which I purchased after Ms. Strange’s review. I have a lot to say about the way the tea boxes were arranged, organized, and sold. Some (Many?) of the original items featured in the boxes were substituted for other things. It was mentioned that there may be substitutions. The original sale advertising mini-videos of the boxes were pulled down by the time the boxes were shipped out—a three-week time lag. More venting to come.This is my first review of one of the box items. This drink is peppy, I’ll give it that.
There’s that fizzy ginger ale thing going on.
I am probably not the person to be reviewing this drink as I am biased. Ginger ale reminds me of having my tonsils taken out.
That’s incredibly disappointing. Sounds like a drink best saved for a sick day :P
I do like the grab bag-like idea of the tea fest boxes. I also want to discover and support our local tea people, who have probably been suffering during this endless COVId situation.
There were a number of random tea things in the boxes, but I’ll refrain from comment until I have a chance to explore more thoroughly.
I got something like five RTD drinks (among my three boxes). To be continued. Maybe a bit of praise with the ranting and raving.
A local tea box is such a neat idea; its cool they change things up but it sounds like a bit more transparency would be nice (the hit or miss nature of sub boxes, eh). Was there a link with this event? Totally flew under my radar.
Looking forward to what you got though!
I was certain you were around when she posted details and discount code. It was, however, a very brief window before the purchase cutoff date.
Click into red visit the site button and shop to see what’s available (though boxes I think are done.). https://en.festivalduthequebec.com/
Who knows—maybe they are still available.
I probably was but am sometimes (often) oblivious to hyped deals and sales.
The boxes that are up right now are pretty nice! :)
The packaging is fun and some of the contents are cool. Looking forward to exploring. I like the idea of a tea festival in a box, especially in our quasi-lockdown days. I was hoping to go beyond my tea comfort zone a bit. I wonder what they will be putting up on the site the days of the fest.
I do love that they got creative with an online festival. You’re right, it’s a nice option with covid stuff causing everything to be up in the air all the time!
It also looks like a better spread than our Vancouver Tea Festival; when I went to that one a few years back, everyone was pushing puerh. So.Much.Puerh. lol
The Portland (Oregon, US) Tea Festival did the same this year, since they had to cancel an in-person event. Offered limited time sampler boxes which also included the cups you’d get from a physical tea festival.
Did you get one of the boxes?
I was one of the tasters for the Toronto Fest a couple of years ago and the sampler pack we got was awesome.
These are pretty well everything—oolong, whites, herbals, forest botanicals, fruit blends,, greens, mate, puerh, matcha— except for the dearth of black tea.
Yup, I bought one and so did my friend; we attended the festival at their last in-person event in 2019, so I was on the notification list for them. It was quite a limited run, though.
Here too, I think. Overall, I think it is going to be a positive experience.
Portland Festival’s page says they did 200 boxes? I could see them being a good one! It’s going on the bucket list; Portland is fun.
Our in-person festivals are quite good with quite a variety of vendors. I’ve been to several. That said, I find the crowds overwhelming.
